Travelling in 2017: Ukraine

The driver of the bus in Krakow to IF, which I was later sure had to be my bus to IF, said that it wasn't my bus... After waiting another 30 minutes in a rainy, windy and cold Krakow, I just bought a ticket from the driver of a bus to Lvov, that was still there at almost 02.00 at night. Then once I would be in Lvov I would buy a ticket (bus or train) to Ivano Frankivsk. This option seemed better than to possibly wait all night in Krakow if no other buses to a destination near IF would come. If it had been daytime and nice and warm I would have waited...

The border crossing (at Грушів) took incredibly long, 4.5 hours... WTF? In an airport it takes at worst 25 minutes or so... I guess there is just 1 Polish and 1 Ukrainian guard doing the actual checking? Getting through the polish part took most of the time. Why? Are they playing computer games and once in a while go see about checking passports of travellers?

In Lvov I bought a train ticket to Ivano-Frankivsk, as trains are much more comfortable than buses. It did mean waiting 2 hours but I had sat enough in uncomfortable buses, so I relaxed there and read and wrote a bit in the waiting hall in Lvov. It was not as productive as the previous year when I analysed half a book!

Ivano-Frankivsk

Immediately when I got into Ukraine I liked it a lot more than while in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary... And on the 2nd day in Ukraine, the day after I arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk, even more as there was a bread festival, with folk music and some music seemed to have gypsy music influence... In another place there was also music, even more like gypsy music. Influences from Romania? There is always something interesting in all the cities that I visit on my trips!

Ivano-Frankivsk has some nice style buildings, nice parks but all in all not that much that grabbed my attention. In the hostel I had some interesting conversations with a couple, and with a saleslady who visits fairs to sell handmade jewellery that was meant for men to give to girlfriends (perhaps also vice versa?) Then some German students which was quite interesting to talk about life in Ukraine but also language issues. I asked for example if they could understand Swiss. This is really a form of German but the pronunciation is such that I don't understand it at all. For them it is exactly the same... Then Austria vs. Germany, I mentioned some issues in how people from NL look at Belgians and vice-versa, and apparently there are similar issues between Austria and Germany. They had some bus ticket issues which they wanted to order from infobus.eu but their credit card didn't work. My credit card also didn't work with that site, so the credit card companies seem to have not added that site to their list of trusted sites. But anyway, that site is really useful to see what bus connections are available, within Ukraine, within EU, and EU <-> Ukraine. I found on that site for example later on my trip the marshrutka from Zaporizhya to Nikopol, that the ticket seller didn't know but which leaves from that station. I didn't want to wait for the bus she said was going there (more than an hour later), walked to the platforms, saw it there, and left a few minutes later.

Novograd-Volynsky

I went from Ivano-Frankivsk by train and in the coupe I talked to couple and a lady, and mentioned what I like in Ukraine, also some popular music. I showed the lady the video of Druga Rika's "Nazavzhdi (na na na ma na)" which I think is quite a funny video, a parody on talent shows, but she didn't like it as the main guy at the end got medieval (implied, not shown) on one of the criticisers, and she felt this group are 'vandals' ;-) I see it differently, I like it because it's so unusual. I got here very early in the morning, it was raining so I read a bit in a book first in the station and went off when there was daylight. This town has a quite small railway station (nice, but not as cool as the similar sized station in Sharivka where I was on a previous trip). This is quite a small town and I had looked up and noted the adresses of 2 hotels, but not made a reservation. When walking to the area of those 2 hotels I saw another small hotel and just took a room there, closer to the centre. This town has nice monument with Mig 19 on a pedestal, some nice spots in the centre with plenty of green, benches etc. There I also saw an unusual 'monument' of what I was told is 'finely decorated bread called Korovai'. There is also a partial restoration or rebuild of a small castle. Nice nature all around the town... Not much more than for 1 or 2 days exploring I think, so after that time one would need to go to places outside the town and there are some interesting spots (old buildings, ruines) not far from there.

Korosten

I was told last year that this city is nice to visit and has a great park, but on the first day I didn't see anything that grabbed my attention. The park is definitely nice with sculptures displaying some of the history of the town... I talked to some women who told me a bit of the issues in Korosten, such as that there is not enough to do for young children, though for older ones too there is not enough: there is a football field, a night club for dancing club, and the park. There is nothing for other sports, no things like cultural activities, nor ballet for girls.

Also, this lady told me a bit about various isues in life in Korosten. In particular men in that city are often angry, in a bad mood, she said. So what in particular makes life there such that they are angry, or in a bad mood? This would need analysis...

There is a bunker complex and military vehicles and more, close to the park, and a man sitting on bench asked me after I made some pictures, if I was from out of town. Well, yes, actually a tourist from NL! :) So he advised to go see the bunker the next day, and said that there are guided tours. He also advised not to show that I'm a tourist, be careful (with showing money). Well, that reminded me of 2013 in Kremenchuk when I took the train to Simferopol. The use of platform number was not clear to me, why not just use tracks? Anyway, a woman who has family there but lives in Russia, guided me to the train and when I took out my wallet she warned me not to do that, as "this is Ukraine!". To be honest I never felt unsafe and nothing ever happened to me on any of my trips, except for daylight robbery by taxi drivers ;-) The next day was also the deruny festival, no problem, I could combine going to the bunker and the festival. There were no guided tours that day but I had a look, in it are lots of pictures, some equipment/guns/shells, and some stuff showing how they lived there.

Fest with deruny: I tried some of the potato pancakes and wanted to try a few more types but didn't get round to it. I love the traditional outfits (vishivanka), for both men and women. I bought one for myself last year (after the cossack show in Zaporizhya) and really should use it though white is hard to keep clean... ;-)

Train from Korosten to Zhitomir (on Sunday)

Train to Zhitomir. An electrichky with wooden seats, on Sunday at 16.34. most people are students, I guess going back to dorms in Zhitomir where they study....

Zhitomir:

I found here excellent lemon juice, not too sour... (from Sadochok)

The bridge across the river at the Gagarin park is now open and has coloured lights, but I was told that these get stolen, and indeed some were gone, the wires cut...

I talked to a traveller from Ukraine in the hostel where I stayed, about travelling and life in Ukraine. She said she worked in IT consulting and her view was that life is not dificult in Ukraine. But as with the guys running the guesthouse in Kherson where I stayed in 2015, this view is not representative: Professions where people make money from work that gets money from abroad or that are about luxury' spending, such as translations, programming, and privately owned guest houses, give more independence from price changes and from the general economic difficulties in Ukraine and means that such people don't see the real problems for others...

Oh, and she had some cookies. I recognised them from bakery Bulochnaya 9, where I went a day earlier, as recommended by a friend, so I asked "from Bulochnaya 9?" :) She was surprised that I knew it. The cookies they make are not bad, much better than in any shops or supermarkets, but still far inferior compared to cookies in the Netherlands (from either supermarkets or bakery shops). In Ukraine cookies and candies are generally rather bland in taste and there are no really crunchy cookies. In NL the variety of tastes in candies and cookies is enormous, absolutely incomparable! But that is an exception, almost everything else in Ukraine I prefer to NL (personality of people, weather, food, nature, buildings, space).

I took a ride in a ferris wheel, close to the Gagarin park, which gives a good view of the city and nature surrounding it, and I got talking to 2 ladies who worked there. I told them what I like in Ukraine, and one said to the other 'he knows all about Ukraine'. Well, I have seen a lot on my trips, that is true! :) They mentioned the problem of corruption in Ukraine, which is an issue, but I told them it happens in a different way in the Netherlands too (see my critical book review of a Dutch book on Ukraine for some examples). I told them that in NL there is less corruption, but the real difference seems to be that the people here in NL who do it, are better at hiding such things!

Here I further visited a fair with horses and some riding and whip tricks and bow shooting, as in the cossack show on Khortetsya.

I also went to an English language club organised in the library, and 'hijacked' their meeting in the sense of making the topic be about issues in Ukraine and comparing it to the Netherlands. So, there was for example a retired colonel, who extolled all the great things about the Netherlands. It has the greatest artists, football players, and apparently the furthest overseas territories. This may be true but, those artists are all dead, I'm not interested in football, and also not in accomplishments from the past such as the discovering and capturing of far away lands. More important is what is life like now, and how do the people behave (what is their personality). Lots of topics came up in this meeting and really more time was needed but perhaps I will go there again in 2018. I will tell a bit: Some wanted to improve Ukraine, some wanted to leave Zhitomir, others were not outspoken, and of course 1 or 2 wanted to leave Ukraine. Well, quite normal composition of this group, in any country, I would say :) The topic of corruption came up and the usual leader of discussion (this group is about practicing speaking English), mentioned the killing of corrupt people in goverment, by, oh was it China? And that this doesn't fix the problem as there comes a next generation. No it doesn't fix the problem, as what needs to be done is psychological evaluation of everyone who gets into government and not allow certain people in certain jobs (a psychologcial assesment is done in NL for government workers, but not for politicians! The insanity!). Then there needs to be openness of government (which there isn't in NL either), along with checking that people do their job and not take bribes etc. and finally all people need to be taught to analyse, to not follow leaders and to think about why someone says something: People say things, because they want to achieve something. Some people are openly manipulators, here in NL there are so called 'opiniemakers' which if you think about it, it is absolutely insane that this term is used in anything other than a denigrating manner, because it literally means "opinion maker", and as you can't make opinions in others, it means in effect "a manipulator who tries to force his/her opinions onto others"!

Day trip to Denishi and Andrushivka.

I did both on 1 day, after looking up something on the net I though this might be interesting: There are ruines of castles originally owned by a single family, in 3 different cities.

First to Denishi: There is not much there, not just the ruines are not very interesting, the town too, or rather village, is not that interesting.

So I went back to Zhitomir, then at the bus station I asked for a ticket to Andushivka. I also asked when the last bus back to Zhitomir from there would be but the seller didn't know so I took a chance, I guessed the last bus back would go ca. 19.00 or 20.00 which would give me 2 hours at least, and likely that would be enough to see everything. I was also prepared to sleep in a field somewhere if needed if the last bus had left and there were no hotels.

Upon arriving in Andrushivka, I asked the bus driver about buying tickets for later back to Zhitomir and it then turned out that the last bus had already left... I knew this was possible but I realised then that I should have asked the busdriver in Zhitomir about the last bus back to Zhitomir, and after that buy a ticket! (He will likely know as he goes to Andrushivka, and at some time/date back again)
Well, no problem, I started exploring this town. The old small castle, is now a school. And it lies next to a really nice park, it's worth visiting for that. I further saw an old sugar factory. One guy with whom I talked for a while, told me he used to work there until it was bought up and then it was closed down.

I was walking with him and another guy in places where there was often no streetlighting, it was switched off as a measure to save mony, or so the local politicians said, but they felt the money saved just went into the pockets of corrupt politicians. Well, you can say that, but is it actually true?

I bought some food and after walking all around town I asked a few people about a hotel or other accomodations. In the end I stayed with a family in that town and in the morning back to Zhitomir. Next time I will sleep in a field, just for the experience! :)

To Zaporizhya

On the train to Zaporizhya I talked to a few people, 1 of them a doctor from Mariupol. I asked him about his income, and it is, for first grade doctor, 200 euro per month. A 2nd grade doctor would get ca. 100 euro. This is very different from what I heard in Zhitomir (the traveller from Lvov, who makes pictures of her trips, and who works in IT support), and Kherson in 2015 (the people who owned the guesthouse where I stayed), but these amounts are similar to most other sources that told me about what incomes are. The interesting thing here is that people who are doing a job that gives them a position of luxury (guesthouse owners or people doing work that is paid by foreign sources, such as programmer or IT services), compared to most other people, often do not see what reality is like for average people and they thus don't realise that they are in a position of luxury.

Also in the coupe was a woman from Mariupol who has family in Donetsk. She told that the average people in that area do not want to be part of Russsia... I gave my (internet/email) address card, printed on a piece of paper and she started to complain that it was just paper, not cardboard such as the doctor's card! Well, does it matter? The purpose for me is to give information, not to advertise! ;-) This woman works in cosmetics, as I could have guessed from her appearance (make up), and it shows that this profession is aptly chosen as for her appearance is very important! (you can do psychological analysis anywhere! :) )

The doctor mentioned, about the train and the waggling to the sides and through corners, that likely that won't happen in NL. Well, yes it does. Perhaps a little less, but is it important? You can in any case drink something or read a book, contrary to on the bus, so I don't care. I told that Ukraine actually has a more advanced train than anything I've seen in NL, namely the intercity between Kiev-Kharkiv (possibly also used on other tracks, but this route is where I travelled on it). He seemed to not believe it... People usually assume that everything is better in western Europe...

I said that I liked Mariupol, when I was there in 2016, but they both didn't like it... The woman mentioned e.g. the very variable weather. I guess that comes from being close to a large body of water, just like in NL...

Something else, I was reminded of, the use of both train track and platform numbers seemed odd since I first noticed it in Kremenchuk 2013. Why? You only need the track number, and where that is automatically shows which platform unless you could get in from a different platform to both sides of a train (only possible with single railtracks with platforms in between, of course. I don't know if this is done, but in any case it would be easier to just have a fixed entry side.

Zaporizhya:

Here a lot of things happened. First I asked some people on the street about life in UA and some behaviour was interesting for psychological analysis.

So, first a young woman, I asked her near the monument of the propeller aircraft on pedestal if she likes such things (some people don't like it, some people don't like anything from soviet times) and she said it needed restoration. Uhm, what? No it doesn't. But I guessed this was a high-maintenance woman... :)

Then a woman with perfect make up and some style of handbag and clothes that made me think 'painted bitch' (think of the film 'Loves and doves', but now not the hair but face is painted :) ), and sure enough, I was right. No useful information from her.

But I got talking to a mother and son, who told me their views, such as that a big problem is insecurity of what the next day will bring, esp. no job security, and of course that wages are low. I had heard a few years ago from someone in Kremenchuk of an apartment that she rented being demanded back by the person letting it, not much protection for tenants apparently. Then of course there are the low wages. The son also mentioned a friend who lives in the Netherlands and that there there are very good bicycle paths. Indeed, in many places...

There was also a circus on several days, with parts based on the cossack show, horse riding, etc. I was told it's not allowed to make pictures which is a mistake, after all, being there is not just because you are just curious. If such curiousity would just be filled by seeing some pictures, then I doubt such a person would ever go there. Similar to film theaters, whose audience has not dropped despite people putting out films made with video cameras inside theatres, or even the DVD coming out 6 months later. People go there because they don't want to wait and/or seeing it on a big screen, possibly with friends.

I got talking to the guy who enforced this, about why I like it in UA and he said to go live in UA :) Yes, but getting a long term visa is still an issue...

The circus is a show with elements from the Cossack show at Khortetsya. I was wondering whether there would be horse riding in the small ring, and they did manage it with some limitations. Such things always show, despite the problems in UA, an awareness of identity in culture and customs even if the average Ukrainian is perhaps not proud to be Ukrainian because of esp. economical problems. Such an identity is largely gone in the Netherlands which is made worse by the identity being erased by cultural invaders, helped by psychopathic politicians who don't care about the people of the country they rule in.

Then in a hostel I talked to 2 guys:

The first guy said he left his house, some disagreements with family. he is angry, curses a lot and is very negative about life in Ukraine and esp. corruption. He curses about the billionaires too. I agree they are no good, but divide 1 billion euro by 70 million people and you only have about 140 euro per person... But he is hesitant to accept anything, including my word for life in NL, e.g. that there are beggars in NL (which there are in all big cities, in Germany I experienced it e.g. in the not so big city Aachen). There are far fewer stray animals in NL (dogs/cats) but mainly this is because in NL they get picked up by animal shelters... (in UA these will have a harder time because of lower wages and high cost of food for animals).

Lots of people outside Ukraine and within Ukraine talk of the problem of corruption, and people in Ukraine who feel that life in Ukraine is bad, blame everything, well, a lot, on corrupt politicians, as happened in the small town Andrushivka. I feel that blaming everything on corruption makes no sense. Esp. for cost of roads. Roads in Ukraine are bad but the distances are so big compared to NL, and the cost of a good road is at least several million euro per kilometer (and up to 15 million euro per kilometer)! Even if the main cost is in labour (which it likely is not) and/or most materials are from within UA, then still it would be many times more expensive than in NL relative to income, to fix all the roads in Ukraine...

The 2nd guy is likeable, Sergey from Lugansk. He tells me a bit about life in Lugansk and rest of Ukraine, and tells me he gets as a pension of 1900 UAH/month (he comes to Zaporizhya to collect the pension...). This is barely enough for groceries...

While in Zaporizhya he buys various food. He told me that the products in the Donbass area come from Russia and are of very bad quality (meat, sausage, bread, milk, etc.). No good quality control in Russia, he says, whereas in the rest of Ukraine the quality is good...

After talking a while, the other guy gets annoyed as he wants to sleep (but it was quite early, not even 20.00) and he curses again and complains about the billionairs, again. He then got talking about a older Russian film, of some guys getting into prison in NL, and what they showed seemed right, but he felt that life in prison in NL is better than life in Ukraine... Well, you have no freedom to try anything in prison, so you may have TV and food, but that is not what makes life worth living!

He further accuses Sergey, as an inhabitant of the separatist area, of being part of the cause for the war in Ukraine. Note that the lady in the train from Mariupol, said most people she knows in Donetsk do not want to be part of Russia. The question about this remains: has this changed since the start of the war? Perhaps those who wanted to be with Russia all left for Russia since end of 2014? Anyway, Sergey feels the need to defend himself: He feels Ukrainian and feels bad about the situation in Ukraine, and he says that he is "guilty without guilt", because of where he lives. He feels that he is in a "hostage situation", he can't just leave, he has family, house etc. there. This is similar to the case of the lawyer from Donetsk whom I talked to, also in Zaporizhya, in 2016.

He also told that the weapons in the Donbass area come from Russia, he has seen it himself... He further said that there (in the separatist part of the Donbass region) he could not talk about it or it would have lethal consequences...

He asked me why I think Russia would put weapons on Ukrainian soil: Well, to me it's clear, also looking at other conflict areas: Giving weapons to the separatists is done to destabilize Ukraine to create a buffer zone between Russia and Nato/EU. Sergey agreed... [ By the way I read a comment somewhere on youtube recently with a video about some new MIG or Sukhoy aircraft, where some guy said that Russia isn't interested in more land (of e.g. Ukraine), they are already huge. This is false. Just like rich people who are similarly never happy with what they have... ]

A few things that I saw may indicate further problems in the economy: The closing of supermarket 'Billa' close to the Перемоги park. It was rather empty in 2016 so perhaps it's more about the location than the economy. I overheard some ladies on the tram mentioning the closure so that may have happened not long before my arrival in Zaporizhya. I had already noticed that the fast food restaurant McFoxy was closed, this was a pity as it had fantastic cherry milk shakes (I love milk shakes when I'm walking a lot on a hot day!)

I made a long walk to the south of Zaporizhya, where there is a curious anandoned railway track, with very interesting stations all different. Was this meant to be similar to a metro but above ground? Strange as there seems almost no buildings/people from the one side, though there are flats some distance the other way of the loop. It started raining on my walk back and at one point back into populated I set down my near that area of flats and a woman almost accusingly talked that I should not put my umbrella on the ground, which I did to get my coat out of my back pack. So she held up my umbrella for me. I thank you! Although really I didn't mind getting a bit wet :) It reminded me of my first trip to Ukraine, where I talked to 2 women. They showed me the peace park there and then we walked back to the area where there is a McDonalds, and at one point I put down my back pack. "No, don't do that!" they exclaimed, "the ground is dirty, it is not like in the Netherlands!". I later read that other travellers to Ukraine have had similar experiences, that people in Ukraine for some reason don't want to put things down on the ground. For me dirt is dirt, and I think sidewalks are the same in this respect in Ukraine as in NL :)

Day trip to Nikopol

I took a marshrutka that had some free places, from the busstation, it was quite a long ride over very poor roads.

Kiev

I don't like Kiev, as it's too noisy, but to decide what to do, I went there a few days. In that time I talked with some people in the hostel, both guests and those who work there, about life in Ukraine, and other topics. A student told me his view of why I experienced such a big difference in ability to speak foreign languages, and in particular English, with Ukrainians of all ages, even young people now at university. I encountered many last year and this year in Zaporizhya. Most barely speak English, and yet in another case, some high school students of ca. 16 years of age that I talked to in Zaporizhya spoke very good English. The difference is according to this student, likely due to how good the teacher is who they have in school. He thought this because of having experienced bad teachers... So the level of the educational system is possibly quite variable. Further, I finally went to the botanical garden! :) It's quite a nice park, and an oasis of rest in the noise of Kiev. I decided to go home after a few days, took Naszbus (www.naszbus.com) to Wroclaw, then in the evening a bus from Sindbad (sindbad.pl/en) to Amsterdam.

Ukraine: Prices, cost of living 2017

Prices in Ukraine, in 2017; the UAH has changed in value from ca. 0.10 euro (in 2012-2013) to about 0.03 euro. This does not mean that everything is 3 times cheaper for me, as prices have risen in various areas. The fast marshrutki since 2015-2016 charged double the price in UAH compared to 2012-2013. This is logical as petrol is a large part of the cost which is directly influenced by the exchange rate. Food is almost the same price as in 2012-2013 as seen in euros, so for those whose wages have not greatly increased and thus for many people in Ukraine, this is a problem. What is now really cheap for me is travel by train, and local bus. Here prices have hardly increased in UAH and thus are now a lot cheaper than jn 2012-2013. Prices for the metro have increased from 2 UAH to 3 UAH and 4 UAH in Kharkov and Kiev.

I asked some girls who worked in one of the hostels that I stayed in in Zaporizhya, about living in Ukraine: They get 3000 UAH per month. Living costs are 2000 UAH for apartment, shared with another girl so each 1000 UAH. Another of the girls lived with her parents. Considering the costs of groceries (about half the price of that in NL), how do they survive? Well, by eating boring/cheap food, and not spending anything! One of them said she considered this job as a precursor to getting a job in a hotel, where pay is better...

Travel report: 26-8-2017 - 7-10-2017 (updated 21-12-2017, 5-1-2018)